Literature and life often claim you can't go home again, but what happens if you have to?  In this book talk and author reading, Melissa Scholes Young will chronicle how Mark Twain's own exodus from Hannibal parallels Laura Brooks', the protagonist of her debut novel, Flood, who like the Mississippi River, once ran in the wrong direction in order to recalibrate.  She'll share her historical research and creative writing process as well as explore why Twain's origin in rural America is more relevant than ever.

Melissa Scholes Young is an associate professor in the Department of Literature at American University in Washington, D.C. and a Bread Load Bakeless Camargo Fellow.  Her writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Washington Post, Narrative, Ploughshares, and Poets and Writers.  She's a Contributing Editor for Fiction Writers Review and Editor of the anthology Grace in Darkness.  Her debut novel, Flood, set in Hannibal, Missouri, the hometown she shares with Mark Twain, was the winner in Literary Fiction for the 2017 Best Book Award